People protested against child rape in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, April 23

Police arrested a 20-year-old man suspected of raping a 5-year-old girl in a south Delhi slum Wednesday, the latest in a string of sex crimes in India’s capital.

B.S. Jaiswal, deputy commissioner of the south Delhi police department, said the man attacked the girl at her home in Chirag Delhi. The man, who Mr. Jaiswal named only as Vijay, lived in the neighborhood. He has been arrested on charges of rape and unnatural sex, Mr. Jaiswal said.

The girl was Wednesday admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, a government hospital in south Delhi, where her condition is stable, Mr. Jaiswal added. A spokesperson for AIIMS wasn’t immediately able to comment.

Protests in India peaked in December and early January following the gang rape of a 23-year-old on a moving bus in New Delhi. The Dec. 16 assault was so violent that the physiotherapy student died from her injuries two weeks later, on Dec. 29.

In March, India’s Parliament passed legislation to overhaul the country’s criminal code, instituting stricter punishment for rape cases, and making many other forms of sexual assault and harassment punishable crimes.

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